Carbonate Platforms

This volume also discusses the computer modelling of carbonate cycles and sequence analysis. This will prove an invaluable text for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students in the earth sciences in general and will also be of value to the professional researcher. Carbonate platforms contains contributions from an international authorship and the volume has been edited by one of the most respected names in the earth sciences. Areas covered include; early rifting deposition; examples from carbonate sequences of Sardinia (Cambrian) and Tuscany (Triassic-Jurassic), Italy; geometry and evolution of platform-margin bioclastic shoals, late Dinantian (Mississippian), Derbyshire, UK; cyclic sedimentation in cabonate and mixed carbonate/clastic environments; four simulation programs for a desktop computer; middle Triassic carbonate ramp systems in the Catalan Basis, N.E. Spain; facies, cycles, depositional sequencies and controls; stages in the evolution of late Triassic and Jurassic platform carbonates; western margin of the Subalpine basin, Ardech, France. The formation and drowning of isolated carbonate platforms; tectonic and ecologic control of the Northern Apennines; controls on Upper Jurassic carbonate build up development in the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal; Hauterivian to Lower Aptian carbonate shelf sedimentation and sequence stratigraphy in the Jura and northern Subalpine chains (southeastern France and Swiss Jura); basement structural controls on Mesozoic carbonate facies in northeastern Mexico; the Aptian-Albian carbonate episode of the Basque-Cantabrian Basis (Northern Spain); general characteristics, controls and evolution; response of the Arabian carbonate platform margin slope to orogenic closing of an ocean basin, Cretaceous, Oman.

Modern seismic data have become an essential toolkit for studying carbonate platforms and reservoirs in impressive detail. Whilst driven primarily by oil and gas exploration and development, data sharing and collaboration are delivering fundamental geological knowledge on carbonate systems, revealing platform geomorphologies and how their evolution on millennial time scales, as well as kilometric length scales, was forced by long-term eustatic, oceanographic or tectonic factors. Quantitative interrogation of modern seismic attributes in carbonate reservoirs permits flow units and barriers arising from depositional and diagenetic processes to be imaged and extrapolated between wells. This volume reviews the variety of carbonate platform and reservoir characteristics that can be interpreted from modern seismic data, illustrating the benefits of creative interaction between geophysical and carbonate geological experts at all stages of a seismic campaign. Papers cover carbonate exploration, including the uniquely challenging South Atlantic pre-salt reservoirs, seismic modelling of carbonates, and seismic indicators of fluid flow and diagenesis.

This IAS Special Publication #27 contains 17 of the papers presented at the IAS International Workshop on Reefs and Carbonate platforms in the Pacific and Indian oceans held in Sydney (July 1995). This is the first book to summarize the current state of knowledge about reefs and carbonate platforms in these oceans, where there is a great diversity of carbonate systems in various tectonic settings. Papers concern both processes operating in reefs and carbonate platforms and case histories (platform and oceanic reef case histories). Case histories range from the Lower Cretaceous to modern reefs and most fossil carbonate platforms concern outcomes from recent ODP legs in the Pacific. The book covers a broad spectrum of disciplines related to carbonate geology: sedimentology, geochemistry, geophysics, reef ecology and modeling. If you are a member of the International Association of Sedimentologists, for purchasing details, please see: http://www.iasnet.org/publications/details.asp?code=SP25

This volume arises from the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on 'North African Cretaceous rudist and coral formations and their contributions to carbonate platform development , which was held in Tunisia, on 13-18 May, 2002. It was convened by M. El Hedi Negra (Universite 7 Novembre de Carthage, now Universite de Tunis El Manar, Tunisia) and Eulalia Gili (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain). The aims of the ARW were: (1) to review and critically assess currently available data on rudist/coral formations in North African Cretaceous carbonate platforms, and their correlations, and to integrate these data with other studies around the Mediterranean; (2) to place the findings in a global context, noting both similarities with other regions of platform development as well as local differences, and (3) exploring possible reasons for these; and to help promote the creation of a vibrant peri-Mediterranean collaborative research community, embracing researchers from the entire region, to carry forward this ambitious research programme. Twenty-two presentations (oral and poster) provided both topical reviews (covering rudist evolution, and ecology, mineralogical changes, applications of strontium isotope, and graphic correlation methods, and platform typology) as well as regional syntheses (Tunisian reservoirs, Moroccan platform history, Tunisian platforms and rudist/coral facies, Algerian platforms, and Egyptian platforms). Fifteen of these presentations are expanded here as papers. The workshop was attended by 24 academic staff, 4 geologists from the oil industry, plus several observers and students.

Periplatform slope sediments from the Bahamas serve as an example for a small-scale sedimentologic record of environmental changes. Carbonate platforms react sensitively to sea-level fluctuations. Therefore, sediments deposited on the slope during lowstands differ in composition from highstand deposits. A second focus is the early diagenetic alteration and cementation of these sediments with their high diagenetic potential. This book contributes to and discusses new developments in carbonate sedimentology such as the concepts of highstand shedding and early burial diagenesis, which also have an impact on reservoir studies.

This unparelleled reference synthesizes the methods used in microfacies analysis and details the potential of microfacies in evaluating depositional environments and diagenetic history, and, in particular, the application of microfacies data in the study of carbonate hydrocarbon reservoirs and the provenance of archaeological materials. Nearly 230 instructive plates (30 in color) showing thin-section photographs with detailed explanations form a central part of the content. Helpful teaching-learning aids include detailed captions for hundreds of microphotographs, boxed summaries of technical terms, many case studies, guidelines for the determination and evaluation of microfacies criteria, self-testing exercises for recognition and characterization skills, and more